Corbyn calls for party showdown on anti-Semitism rules to be delayed

Jeremy Corbyn has called on Labour MPs to postpone a new party showdown on anti-Semitism rules.

The Labour leader said a crunch meeting set for Monday on the contentious issue should be delayed until the autumn so that more people can attend.

After widespread complaints that a new code of conduct did not go far enough the gathering of the Parliamentary Labour Party is set to debate an emergency motion on adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

Labour’s code explicitly endorses the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism and includes a list of behaviours likely to be regarded as anti-Semitic copied word-for-word from the international organisation’s own document.

But it omits four examples from the IHRA list:

– Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country;

– Claiming that Israel’s existence as a state is a racist endeavour;

– Requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations; and

– Comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis.

Labour insisted that while the examples are not reproduced word for word, they are covered in the new code.

Senior Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who lost family members in the Holocaust, last week confronted Mr Corbyn in Parliament over the party’s response to anti-Semitism.

She later said Mr Corbyn was “now perceived by many as an anti-Semite”.

Mr Corbyn revealed he had not spoken to Dame Margaret since the incident, which she faces disciplinary action over.

He said: “I felt not pleased about it, I felt upset about it but as always I am very calm and treat people with a great deal of respect.

“I don’t shout at people, I just listen to what they have to say.

“A complaint has been registered and that will have to be dealt with by the party, but that is independent of me.”

Tory vice chairman Rehman Chishti said: “Labour’s failure to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitic racism in full is shameful.

“Jeremy Corbyn promised a ‘kinder politics’, but his party’s watered-down definition of anti-Semitism risks giving a free pass to people who do and say things which have no place in public life.

“Both the Conservative Government and the Conservative Party recognised the IHRA definition, in full, back in December 2016. If Labour are serious about tackling anti-Semitism they should adopt it in full too.”